D r e a m c a t c h e r
by Eviclair
Summary: Killer soccer balls, weird monsters, and a psychopathic underclassman with a God-complex. And here I thought moving was supposed to be fun. .:Adventure 02 Rewrite, OC/?:.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned Digimon, I wouldn't have to write fanfics because I'd be _filthy freaking rich_.  
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**Summary: Killer soccer balls, weird monsters, and a psychopathic underclassman with a God-complex. And here I thought moving was supposed to be fun. .:Adventure 02 Rewrite, OC/?:.  
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**Word Count: 2,349  
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**Warnings: None.**

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><p><em>Dear Mom,<em>

_Hey, how's it going? Long time no write. Daddy and the twins have been keeping me on my toes, sorry. Ryou and Ryuu have been a lot brattier than usual. Did you know Daddy and Ryou nearly burnt down the kitchen last week? Uh, don't get mad, though- nothing actually caught fire for more than fifteen seconds. Now there's a big black scorch mark above the stove and it kinda looks like a hippo eating icecream. The picture is attached. Personally, I think it gives the kitchen character. When you get here, please keep in mind that I had absolutely nothing to do with this incident._

_Everyone is doing fine up here in Odaiba. Daddy got all of us enrolled in school and everything. I know you know this already, but I don't want to go. I liked it back in Tokyo. Everything here is so…strange. Why did we have to move, again? I mean, we all had lives back in Tokyo. It's not fair that we have to just drop everything and move away just like that. You guys didn't even tell us we were leaving until like, a week before. _

_You suck, Mom. I mean that in the most loving way possible, please don't ground me._

_Your loving daughter,_

_Rikku_

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><p>Everyone's familiar with that feeling you get waking up for the first day of school, right? You are violently catapulted from the one of the most epic dreams you've ever had in your life into a world of boring and normal and educational. You sit up, mourn the loss of precious sleeping time (after all, you were up until who-knows-when picking out outfits and making sure you had all your stuff) and then suddenly jump out of bed because it's the <em>first day of school<em>. Everybody knows you only do fun stuff on the first day. You begin the rush to make sure that you are perfect and well fed and pretty and generally just flawless and appearance and personality. I was no exception.

After the five minutes of absolute panic when I couldn't find my contact case and had to stumble around nearly blind, I was back on my feet and fully clothed. I stared into my bathroom mirror with a critical eye. I hadn't yet hit the pimply stage of my life and I would probably poke my own eye out if I tried eyeliner or mascara or anything, so I never wore makeup aside from maybe some lip-gloss. Thankfully, that meant there was nothing to worry about in the facial department today. I ran my hand a few times through my short black bangs a few times to try and give them some volume and pinned the longer half of them back with a cute little white hairpin. I tugged on my black pleated skirt just a bit self-consciously- I hated skirts with a passion. They were so…airy. It was weird. I didn't even think I owned anything this frilly till Daddy threw it at my face this morning. Bleh.

I gave up on trying to make my skirt more comfortable and straightened out my dusky blue t-shirt with a sigh of finality. Everyone was going to think I was some sort of girly-girl now, but I didn't have enough time to go find a better pair of pants. I rushed out of the bathroom, narrowly dodging two shaggy twin heads of blue that waited not-so-patiently outside the door.

"It's about time you got out!" The one on the left said, rolling his eyes and stuffing his hands into his hoodie pocket.

"What, you think doing your hair all nice is gonna make you look pretty?" The one on the right continued, snorting ruefully.

I had the sudden overwhelming urge to throw a few small children out a window.

"It still looks like a rat's nest to me!" Ryou and Ryuu, my eternally bratty younger brothers, stuck out their tongues as one. I stuck mine out right back, crossing my arms threateningly and looming over the both of them. Scoffing, they both turned and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind them. There was a slight glow of pride in my chest and it took concentrated effort not to make a triumphant taunting face at their backs. Stick that one in your juices boxes and suck it, you little brats.

I turned on my heel and went racing down the stairs, my curly mess of long hair bouncing around in it's low side ponytail. I really hated my hair. Most people were like 'Oh! Curly hair! I wish I had that!' but trust me, you _don't_. It tends to not only curl, but curl _around other_ curls which just makes brushing a painful hassle. For now, I could only be thankful that my hair was starting to get long enough to weigh itself down and make the curls less of a boingy hassle. I would've taken the time to straighten it for today, but I haven't quite gotten around to getting all my hair supplies out of the moving boxes yet.

Speaking of boxes, karma chose that exact moment to bring to my attention the box conveniently placed at the base of the stairs. As usual, the warning came a few seconds too late. My foot hit the top of the box and I fell forwards, landing flat on my face with a rather painful crash. The box and it's pointy, metal objects dug into my stomach hard and drove the breath out of my lungs. Wheezing, I rolled off of it and onto the cold hardwood floor in defeat, surrendering to its cardboard superiority.

"IS THE BOX OKAY?" My dad shouted from the kitchen, not even bothering to come look for himself. Scowling, I flipped back over onto my stomach and pushed myself to my feet, rubbing my poor throbbing forehead and torso. I really hoped they weren't going to bruise.

"I'M FINE, THANKS FOR ASKING!" I shouted right back, mood in the gutter. First impression of life in this city? Craptastic. I liked it back in Tokyo. Boxes and small identical twin children weren't out to get me all the time.

A heavy rock of moodiness, nervousness, and reluctance settled in my stomach and made me feel slightly nauseous. I was…scared. A new town, a new school, and new people who may or may not be all that nice. I was short enough to be in sixth grade instead of eighth and clumsy enough to trip over perfectly level ground while holding onto a handrail. I really wasn't the kind of person to care too much about other people's opinions of me, but I'd rather make a decent impression all the same, you know? That wasn't going to happen if I kept falling flat on my face at every opportunity I got.

Maybe I was overreacting. The only thing I'd really done all day was fall over a box, right? And that box was just asking to be tripped over. Why else would it be _right there_ at the bottom of the stairs? Confidence somewhat restored, I made my way carefully around other bizarrely place boxes and into the kitchen. Daddy was standing next to the toaster almost nervously, like he was afraid it would burst into flames again or something. It was actually a strong possibility. We'd only been in the house for about a week, but he and Ryou had already managed to nearly set the house on fire. The gigantic scorch mark above the stove was a constant reminder of how utterly incompetent the men in my family were at making anything even remotely edible. We had to get the neighbors and their teenaged daughter to come help fix everything. She'd been weird- why would anyone love a band with a name as unoriginal as the _Teenage Wolves_? I could smell the angst from a mile off. Rolling my eyes at both the memory and my father, I wriggled past my dad and stood protectively in front of the toaster, eyebrows raised.

"_Daddy._ If you wanna make toast, it usually helps if you _plug in the toaster_." I sighed, reaching behind me to hold up the plug that was obviously not in the wall like it should be. There was a long stretch of silence that was only broken by the sound of Daddy slapping his forehead.

"Uh...oops?" He tried sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. I just shook my head and plugged the toaster in, adjusting the temperature dial on the side so that the toast wouldn't burst into flames before it even hit the air again. "You know I'm no good with details!" I sighed again, deeper this time.

That was one hell of an understatement.

"Just…go do whatever it is you do in the mornings." My dad nodded in defeat and turned away. He was a pretty tall guy, which irked me to no end. Why couldn't I have inherited _that _instead of my Mom's tiny height? People still stopped me on the streets to ask where my mommy was and if I was lost! One thing I did get from my dad though was his hair color. I was glad for that, at least. I couldn't really see myself with blueish hair like my mom. I got her curse of curls, though. Ugh. Come to think of it, the only good thing I got from my Mom were my eyes. Unlike Daddy, who had sort of greenish-hazel eyes, I got my Mom's dark blue eyes. People kept mistaking them for black, but they were _obviously_ blue. Any idiot could see that.

I loved my eyes and it pissed me off when people didn't get the color right.

The toast shot up from the toaster, scaring the crap out of me and sending me about a foot into the air. Maniacal twin laughs from the entryway did nothing to help my nerves. I turned to see my younger brothers snickering at me with glints in their eyes that did not make me feel comfortable _at all_. The next thing I knew, two sets of grubby hands had stolen all the toast from the toaster (that I had been _standing in front of_) and had started putting butter on them.

"Hey! Those were for all of us!" I protested. The twins shrugged and literally stuffed entire pieces of toast in their mouths whole. _Ew._ "Gross! You little brats!" I seethed, reaching for one of the two pieces of bread left of the plate. One was slightly more burnt than the other, so I bypassed that one and went for the more normal-looking piece instead. What with the way he cooked, Daddy was used to eating charcoal anyway. Not a second after I thought that, a beefy hand intercepted mine and scooped up the toast I'd had my eye set on. "Daddy!"

He just shrugged and stuffed the toast ('_My toast'_, I thought bitterly) in his mouth, too. Men…were such pigs. Snatching my toast up with a sour expression on my face, I ate it as quickly as I could without looking like as much of a glutton as my Dad and brothers. Retaining any sort of lady-like dignity in this house was proving to be quite a chore. Trying hard to ignore the taste, I raced upstairs to brush my teeth and hopefully not throw up in the toilet form a mixture of nervousness, bad toast, and school jitters.

"Rikku! We're gonna be late!" One of the twins shouted up the stairs at me. From the slightly more annoyed tone of voice, I assumed it was Ryou. Ryuu was the calm one and Ryou was the hothead. They were both beings made of pure evil, though.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" I called back, looking myself over one more time. Messy but thankfully straight black bangs with a cute little clip, check. Decently organized hair, check. Incredibly flat chest, check. Ruffled skirt of evil with black shorts of salvation hidden underneath, also check. I sighed at my reflection one more time before tearing out of the bathroom and down the stairs.

"Okay, ready!" I said, grabbing my backpack and slipping my shoes on. Ryuu took this opportunity to quite violently shove me out the door. I half-stumbled, half-fell over the threshold and down a few porch steps before flailing to a stop a few feet away from the last step, somehow still on my feet.

A brief power struggle and some immature name-calling later, we had all piled into the car. I had managed to use my big-sister status to my advantage and had snagged the front seat while the twins pouted in the back.

The drive to school was almost totally silent other than the occasional mutters from one twin to the next. We had started out listening to some 70s music, but after hearing long-winded complaints from all three of his children, Daddy turned it off. I wasn't too horribly excited to go to a new school. What if I didn't make any friends? Was I doomed to be a social pariah for the whole year? When it came time to pick lab partners, would I be that one kid who had to stand at the front of class and ask if anyone else didn't have a partner? I'd had to do that once or twice. It was horrible.

Before my imagine could take me too far into the world where no one liked me and made fun of me daily, we were at the school. The twins were the first ones out, waving bye to Dad and melding into the crowd of kids like they'd been part of it all their lives. For a pair of ten-year-old kids, they were surprisingly hard to shake up. I was jealous.

"Oh, quit your sulking. It'll be _fine_." My dad 'reassured', grinning. His sensitivity to my plight was truly inspiring. Rolling my eyes, I stepped out of the car and looked around.

'_Well, Rikku,_' I thought, taking a deep breath. _'Welcome to hell'._

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><p><strong>Well, that was the first chapter of my first fanfic on this site. What do you think? Is she too Mary-Sueish, or is it too soon to tell?<strong>

**I wouldn't expect too much out of this fic- I'm really just writing this for fun. Updates may not come often, but I'll try my best~**

**Please review!**


	2. Bloodythirsty Projectiles

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Digidestined. I _do _however own Rikku and Hana. Oh, and Takumi's name and hair. Yeah, he actually kinda exists.**

**Summary: Killer soccer balls, weird monsters, and a psychopathic underclassman with a God-complex. And here I thought moving was supposed to be fun. .:Adventure 02 Rewrite, OC/?:.**

**Word count: 6,085**

**Warnings: Slight violence and swearing.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Bloodthirsty Projectiles<strong>

"Deep breathes, Rikku, deep breathes…" I muttered under my breath so no one could hear. The last thing I needed was someone overhearing me and labeling me as the crazy girl. I clutched my messenger bag a little harder and kept my gaze low enough to see the ground and a few feet in front of me. I would rather be seen as shy than as the total klutz that could trip over a pebble the size of a dime. The strategy seemed to be working for the most part. I had successfully made it to the gate without making a fool of myself, but I wasn't very relieved. Ugh, was the teacher going to make me stand in front of the class and introduce myself? What would I say? Would they-

"Here ya go, Davis!" Someone shouted. I raised my head for a moment to see what all the fuss was about. A few kids that looked about a year younger than me were kicking a soccer ball around. One blue-shirted kid was cocking his leg back to kick the ball straight at some kid with a spiky tawny afro, who I assumed was Davis. Was he- Was he wearing _goggles_? I felt a little bad about it, but suddenly I didn't feel quite so silly anymore. On the other hand, they actually looked pretty good on him. Weird. The glare from the sun bounced off of the glass, blinding me for a moment. I rubbed at my eyes. Maybe that's why he wore goggles- to blind all his opponents.

"Look out!"

I looked.

Goggle-boy Davis had missed the ball by quite a bit, leaving the blur of black and white to hurtle at about a billion miles per hour straight towards my face.

...I was going to _murder _that kid if I survived this.

Only screaming just a _little_, I ducked down, my hands covering my head. I braced myself for the impact, eyes squeezed shut. Ooh, this was going to hurt. I got hit was a basketball once when I was little...talk about trauma. I was trying to eat a corndog at the time and ended up nearly choking on the stick after the impact of the ball shoved it down my throat. I was not willing to repeat the experience.

One second. Two seconds. What the heck? I opened one eye cautiously. No more ball heading for my face. Nope, instead there was a pair of greenish shorts and some really skinny pasty white legs. I followed them up past the black backpack to see the back of someone's hatted head. I straightened up cautiously from my slight defensive crouch and moved to the side to get a better view.

It was another guy, only this one was infinitely less tan and had tufts of honey blonde hair poking out from under his white hat. He and Goggle-boy were having a sort of stare off, Davis watching with his jaw dropped and Hat-Man smiling. To be entirely honest…Hat-Man's unfaltering smile was starting to freak me out. I wasn't focusing too much on that, though. Oh no, I was a bit preoccupied searching for that little _idiot_ who'd kicked the ball.

A flash of blue.

"Hey! Hey, _kid!_ …Oi, where do you think you're-? _Get back here you little brat!_"

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><p>A good ten minutes of racing around the school trying (and failing) to run down that little blue-shirted moron later, I gave up the chase in disgust and returned to retrieve my bag that I had thrown aside when I'd lunged after the guy. It wasn't like throwing it off helped me at all, anyways. I was a pretty fast runner, but one can only dream of catching a kid who probably spent all his free time playing soccer while <em>in sandals<em>. I was never going to be able to watch another game ever again. Lucky for me, Ryou and Ryuu decided to go for martial arts instead…well, I say it's lucky but really it's just a pain. Unlike when they were small(er), they could now actually _hit back_. They didn't exactly pull their punches either, the little brats.

Red faced and out of breath, I returned to the site of my near-death-experience. My messenger bag lay untouched in the grass, albeit a bit dusty. Hat-Man and Goggle-Boy (ha, now they sound like superheroes) were nowhere to be seen. Actually, there was hardly anyone outside anymore. The ones who _were_ left were either staring at me like I was some freak of nature or running inside as fast as they could. So much for not attracting attention, Rikku. Good job.

The warning bell chose that moment to give a loud, unpleasant screeching noise. I guess that explained the running people. Well, crap. Yelping, I fumbled with my bag for a moment before yanking it over my shoulder and tearing off towards the door. Of all the days I could be late, my very first wasn't the most ideal. On the upside, the soccer kid was probably late too. Ah…revenge is sweet. After entering the building, I paused for a moment. I…had no idea where to go. _Crap_.

A flash of blue.

"Hey, kid," I began casually, grabbing the kicker-of-killer-soccer-balls himself by the back of his shirt before he could skitter by. _'Repress the hatred, repress the hatred…'_ "You wouldn't happen to know how to get to class 8-A, would you?" I said sweetly, tightening my grip on his shirt dangerously. He flailed his arms around a bit and nodded quickly, looking from side to side to look for anyone who might be able to help him. No one.

"E-Eiya!...Y-yes? Yes, I do! It's my- it's my class! I'll take you there, just don't hurt me, please! I-I'm sorry!" …Huh. Well, darn. That changed things. I reluctantly released his shirt and shifted from foot to foot, anxious to be off. A little bewildered, he stumbled a bit before speed walking down a hallway to the left. I followed, grinning. Why the sudden change of heart, Rikku? Were you not lusting for his blood moments earlier? Well, I believe the answer should be clear, strange voice inside my mind. I am a firm believer that if someone apologizes and really means it, then they should be forgiven. Plus, anyone ballsy enough to swallow their pride and actually say sorry…Well, I liked those people. 'Forgive and forget', you know? Only…maybe not so much the 'forget' part. You will never catch this me, this guy, and a soccer-ball within twenty feet of each other _ever _again.

"U-um…Here we are?" Even his sandy hair looked like it was nervous, he was twitching that badly. Still smiling, I bowed shortly.

"Thank you, mister…?"

"…Takumi? …T-Takumi Kurokana?" Was everything this guy said a question? Was he just that unsure about his own name? He sure as hell didn't _seem_ unsure when he was tearing across the schoolyard. Nonetheless, I introduced myself like a good little girl.

"Well, I'm Rikku Osai and we're gonna be late!" I chirped, shoving him quite roughly through the door. Hey, just because he apologized and was a little bit cute and pathetic didn't mean I was obligated to actually be _nice_ to him. For all I knew he could be a total asshole when he wasn't scared. I followed him inside the classroom, crossing the threshold just before the final bell rang. The desks in the room were less like desks and more like little tables with two chairs behind each one. Oh, seatmates. _Joy_.

Kids all around the room made a mad scramble for open seats and Takumi immediately ditched me to join them…not that I could blame him. I had just chased him around the school and then shoved him through a door. Maybe I felt a little bad about that, but…I was personally just trying to figure out how I didn't manage to trip at least once throughout that entire episode. I made a move forward to go try and snag a seat before all the good ones filled up, but a beefy hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"Hey~! You're our new student, aren'tcha?" I could _hear_ the grin in his voice. I looked over and above my shoulder to see a hulk of a man. Looking at his smile was like staring straight into the sun and the light that kept flashing off his large glasses and into my eyes didn't help one bit. Blinking rapidly to get rid of the sunspots, I nodded slowly. How had he known I was new? Was I that obvious? …And if it was the first day of school, wasn't _everybody_ a new student? "Well, you just hang out up here for a sec, okay?" He phrased it like a question, but it was pretty obvious that there wasn't any 'no thank you' option. Well, there goes my 'stay invisible' plan... A plan that was, again, ruined by my little sprint around the school. I was finding more and more reasons not to like Takumi by the minute.

I stood at the front of the class obediently, hands clasped behind my back and fingers doing all sorts of weird nervous twitches. Ugh. Ugh, ugh, _ugh_. I _hated_ introducing myself. I wasn't people-shy per say, but there was something about have some thirty-odd pairs of eyes scrutinizing you and you alone that just made me feel sick.

"Well, class! My name is Mr. Meiseki and I'll be your teacher for this year!" He turned to the whiteboard and wrote his name in the most incredibly bright shade of green I had ever seen in my life. Everything about this man seemed to be trying to blind people. "Now, I'd like you all to meet our newest addition to the school! She's coming all the way from Nagoya! How exciting, eh?" He says it like Toyko is a far away country or something. I took a baby step forward and bowed, smiling nervously. '_Don'tmessup, don'tmessup. Don't. Mess. Up...'_

"Uh, hi. Well, my name is Rikku Osai. Like he said, I'm from Nagoya. I moved here with my Dad and my two little brothers. Nice to meet you?" Gah! That wasn't supposed to sound like a question! Stupid Takumi, he was rubbing off on me.

There was a long stretch of silence.

"…Is she really our age?"

"She's so short!"

"Welcome to Odaiba."

"TEACHER, TEACHER, SHE'S SO CUTE! LIKE…LIKE A DOLLIE! CAN SHE SIT BY ME? Puh-leaze?" This last outburst scared me so badly I actually jumped. Um…_what?_ Scanning the room, I quickly found the offending person. It was a tall girl with dark brown hair that just barely brushed the bottom of her shoulder blades. A cute little pink hair band with twin rosy glass orbs that clinked together with every single one of her hyperactive twitches held up her miniature side-ponytail (**1**) and her hazel eyes were sparkling almost as much as Mr. Meiseki's teeth. She was wearing what looked like a school uniform white a black and white blazer and a beige skirt and tie, but a quick glance around the room confirmed that no one else was wearing one. So…a uniform from another school? …_What the hell?_

"Aha! Nope, sorry Miss Furu. You've already got a seatmate, remember?" The hand that was waving frantically in the air paused for a moment. 'Miss Furu' turned to stare blankly at the sleeping boy beside her, nose scrunching up at his soft snores. One violent shove later and he was gaping up at her in bewilderment from the ground, most definitely wide awake. Hana smiled widely and carefully readjusted the chair that had tipped over with him and turned back to Mr. Meiseki.

"Can she sit here _now?_" Her hand was waving at about a thousand miles per hour once again. Oh, god. Crazy hyper girls were bad enough, but this one was _violent, _too. '_Save me, Mr. Meiseki!_' I begged silently, staring back and forth between my teacher and my batshit classmate fearfully. That girl would smother me, I just knew it. Why was I so short and cute? Scratch that last part, I liked being cute most of the time. Sadly, this was absolutely _not one of those times_.

"Haha, sorry Hana! Miss Osai, would you take a seat next to the girl over there with the glasses? I'm sure _she'd_ like a seatmate, too~!" Hana deflated visibly and sank back into her seat, pouting and glaring daggers of jealousy at the girl I was told to sit with. She had longish purple hair pulled back with a bright blue bandana and glasses the size of a small planet. I readjusted my bag and walked very, _very_ carefully down the aisle of desk-tables. The slightest miscalculation could send me crashing to the floor along with my bag and all of my self-respect. I speak from experience, of course.

Finally arriving at my destination, I sat down wearily and gave a nervous glance towards Hana. She waved happily, perking up in her seat. Her hair-orb-things clicked happily at me.

...Three rows of distance didn't seem like nearly enough.

"Hi! Welcome to Odaiba, Rikku, was it? My name's Yolei! I hope we can be friends. You'll really like Mr. Meiseki, he's in charge of all the school fundraisers and the-" That's about the point I stopped listening. I didn't want to be rude to the girl I was going to sit next to for the majority of the school year, but talkative people sort freaked me out and _wow,_could she _ramble_. I always thought Daddy's rants about sports and the economy were bad.

Oh, boy. This was gonna be a _long _day.

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><p>"…Aaaand the office is over here. If you're parent or guardian needs to pick you up early or drop you off late, this is the place to do it. Of course, if you get in trouble you get to come down here too, but you don't really seem like the type. If you come over here a little ways…" Several hours later and Yolei had yet to go more than 10 minutes without saying something. I tried to make an effort to listen, really. She told me a lot about her younger neighbor, Cody I think, and mentioned a thing or two about some siblings. See, I <em>was<em>paying attention!...Mostly.

Yolei led me up some stairs, silent for once. I guess even she has to stop for air once in a while. "And this is the computer lab! If you ever need to type schoolwork, work on projects, or just hang out then this is the place to do it! If it's ever locked and you need to get in, just get me or Mr. Fujiyama. He's the computer club president. You can find him downstairs with the 5th graders." We paused at the door for about half a second before Yolei meandered in, looking like she was totally in her element. I myself wasn't half bad with computers, but my knowledge only extended to basic programs and a borderline-obsessive mastery of surfing the internet.

"Hey, you don't mind if I check my email, do you?" Yolei asked, eyes glinting behind her massive glasses.

"Eh? Oh, feel free." My compliance apparently wasn't exactly a necessary thing because Yolei was online almost before I started speaking. I set my backpack down on the floor and pulled a chair over backwards to sit in, folding my arms over the backrest and resting my chin on them.

Odaiba was…not entirely what I'd expected. Other than Takumi and his headhunting soccer-balls, nothing had been too _completely_ horrible. And hey, if I really thought about it, Takumi himself was a pretty nice guy. After Hana violently catapulted that guy out of his chair, Takumi had helped him pick himself up. He was definitely a weenie though. I wonder if the twins were adjusting well…_they'd_ already gone home, but I'd called ahead and told Daddy I was staying after school for a tour.

"Huh? 'Come to the Digital World right away. The Digimon need our help?'" I pulled myself out of my thoughts to watch Yolei, who looked a bit bewildered. Was that one of her emails or something? Exactly who was sending her stuff like that?

"A Digimon? What's that?" It sounded like a game or something. Yolei shrugged and clicked around a bit, obviously searching for something.

"Let's see who sent it…" Click click click. "Tai Kamiya. Hey, there's a girl in the seventh grade with the same last name! This emails probably hers. I should go give it to her." Personally, I was sort of wondering how this 'Tai' guy got a hold of Yolei's email address and how he could possibly confuse it with what must have been his sister's. Also, Yolei and I were in eighth grade. Why would she know the last name of some random underclassman?

"Uh, Yolei, are you sure it wasn't for you? I mean…it _was_ in your inbox." I pointed out, blowing my bangs out of my eye. The purple-haired girl didn't even pause to think about it and instead got up and walked to the printer.

"I guess, but I've never met Tai Kamiya before. Why would he be sending me emails? No, it's gotta be Kari's!" Oh, so Yolei knew her first name, too. I don't know, maybe it was just a small town thing. Everybody knows everybody. "Come on, let's go find her!" Without even waiting to see if I was following, Yolei grabbed what I assumed to be the printed copy of the email and tore out of the room like a woman possessed. I scrambled out of my chair, banging my knee in the process and limped after her, barely remembering to snag my backpack on the way out. It didn't take me long to catch up, though I had to wonder how a girl in a leg-obstructing skirt could possibly run that fast. My own skirt was above my knees and I was having enough issues running in it, shorts be damned.

After a fruitless ten minute search that involved lots of random rooms that looked exactly the same, Yolei and I finally reached the last hallway. We were running along as usual when I guess something caught her eye and she backtracked so fast I could barely keep up. Well…to be honest, I couldn't. While my seatmate went rushing in to interrogate the cluster of students, I tried to make a nice U-turn of my own. It worked out pretty well until the toe of my sandal got caught in a gap between the planks of the hardwood floor. Face, meet the ground. You and he are going to become very good friends.

"Oh my goodness! Are you okay?" Someone's high-pitched voice of concern was the first thing I heard…after the weird buzzing noise in my head, that is. Without lifting my head, I started pushing myself to my feet. Ugh, it was actually depressing how reflexive it felt. A smallish hand was actually helping to pull me up, which was a nice change from the usual of taunting and evil laughter. Stupid siblings and their conveniently placed boxes...

"Yeah, I'm okay. 'M used to it…" I sighed, red faced and rubbing at my forehead slightly. "Thanks." I finally looked up to meet the eyes of a girl with short brown hair pinned back with a red clip. Her eyes were a sort of deep ruby red color. It was a little disconcerting, but I was more focused on that fact that I was _meeting her eyes_. Like, she didn't have to hunch over to look me in the face or anything. It was…a nice feeling. A nice feeling slightly marred by the realization that I was the same height as a girl a full year younger than me, but a nice feeling nonetheless. "…Kari Kamiya?" I guessed hesitantly.

Thankfully, she nodded, saving me from further embarrassment. Yolei quickly stepped in and I took a moment to look around while my classmate explained the situation. Lockers, lockers, goggles, lockers, hat- Wait, what?

"Hey! You're that girl from this morning!" Goggle-boy seemed to notice me at the same time I noticed him. What was his name again? Darren? Devin? Dave? ...No...Davis! Yeah, Davis. I was surprised he actually remembered me. Actually, scratch that. If I saw a crazy midget chasing my teammate around the school I would remember her, too.

"…I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." I huffed, looking away innocently. What, you thought I was actually going to _admit_ that I tried to kill his teammate? The keyword in that sentence being _tried_ as I obviously _failed_. Rikku Osai does not enjoy admitting failure.

"B-but you-!"

"Nice to meet you! My name's TK, I just moved here." Davis was cut off very cleanly by the Hat-man, who didn't seem like he noticed Davis spluttering in outrage behind him. Was I missing something there? Well, no matter. My white-legged savior was standing before me, and while I was a little disappointed that he was just an itty little underclassman (By 'itty' I don't mean short- he was at least a full head taller than me) I was still grateful…not that I could really tell him so. This morning never happened, remember?

"What a coincidence. My name's Rikku, and I just moved here too. Where'd-?"

"My brother needs us!" I had wanted to ask TK if he was from Nagoya, too (we could have been travel buddies!) but Kari's determined tone of voice demanded a bit more attention. Well, that and the fact that she had taken off out the door with Yolei almost before Davis, TK, and I could even process her words. "This way!" TK followed without missing a beat, and Davis wasn't too far behind. I hesitated, wondering if I should follow. I didn't even know the girl.

…I really didn't have anything better to do with my time, anyways.

Scooping up my bag from where it had fallen during my clumsiness showcase, I hurried off after them.

It didn't take me too long to catch up, and I'm glad I did. We took so many twists and turns to get to the computer lab that I'm fairly certain I'd have gotten lost if I'd tried getting there on my own. I have issues with directions. We rounded a corner with Yolei in the lead. TK was close behind her and Kari was keeping pace with him pretty well. Despite being a soccer player, Davis was last. Or rather, he _would_ have been last if I hadn't almost slipped on that corner and paused to steady myself. Stupid lack of coordination…

The front half of the group came to sudden halt and I very nearly ran straight into Davis's back. After skidding to stop, I looked ahead to see what the problem was.

"Izzy!" Or rather _who_ it was, I guess. A taller male (well, in comparison to me) in what looked like the high school uniform with the brightest naturally red-orange hair I'd seen in a while was stopped at the top of the staircase, briefcase in hand. He looked like a mess, to put it bluntly. His hair was mussed up, his uniform shirt was partly untucked and there were a few papers poking out of his case.

"Y-Yolei? I'm glad I found you," he panted, tugging at his collar. "I need to use the computer room right away!" The bespectacled girl look like Christmas had come early. Her eyes were wide and sparkly and the gigantic glasses she wore only seemed to make them a thousand time larger. Frankly it was bit scary. Like...'Attack of the Giant Insect-Fangirls'.

"You mean the legendary former computer club president is actually looking for _me?_" She swooned, hands clasped in front of her chest. To his credit, the redhead (Izzy, was it?) didn't look creeped out in the slightest. He nodded shortly and Yolei twitched like she was choking back a squeal. "I'm honored!"

"What's up, Izzy?" TK greeted, smile back on his face. Was this guy even physically capable of frowning? And…wait, hadn't we been in a hurry? Kari seemed to be following my train of thought and practically shoved her paper in Izzy's face in her haste to get moving again, her solid frown the total opposite of TK's cheery , meanwhile…looked like he didn't have a clue what was going on. I guess that made two of us.

"Tai sent us this urgent email!" Izzy barely glanced it over before nodding once more.

"I know, I got one too." Apparently that about covered what all needed to be said, because a moment later and we were all off towards the computer lab.

Alright, so…let me see if I had this all straight in my head. Davis was at the very least acquaintances with TK and Kari. Kari had an older brother named Tai who somehow ended up with Yolei's email address and was also friends with Izzy. Izzy used to be the computer club president and judging by how much fangirling Yolei was doing, she was or used to be a part of said club. Yolei…somehow knew Kari. I don't know, maybe they saw each other in the computer lab a lot or something. There also seemed to be something special about the computer lab, too. When someone emails you asking for help, the normal reaction isn't 'lets all get on the internet', it's 'lets go find the person in question and help them out'.

Luckily the staircase wasn't too far away from the computer lab (good thing, too- I was really getting sick of all this running) and we were able to get there in almost no time at all. Izzy slipped into a computer chair like it was his throne and immediately started typing away. It looked…complicated. Then again, I guess not just anyone could become the 'legendary former president of the computer club'. I dropped my backpack off at the door and joined everyone else in the crowd around Izzy.

"I was just about to send Tai and answer when the battery ran out on my computer." Izzy responded to someone's unasked question. Under his breath, he mumbled something about 'Trigonometry Trivia' and 'too much fun'. I'd only known the guy for maybe five minutes but I was already getting suspicious. What kind of human being uses 'Trigonometry' and 'fun' in the same sentence? It was obvious this 'Izzy' person was some sort of cyborg. I bet he even built himself.

…What? It's a valid theory!

"Uh…" I began a little hesitantly, but never got to finish my sentence because Izzy suddenly paused in his furious typing (hacking, coding, whatever) and perked up, clicking a few times before typing what looked like a really short email.

"I got 'im!"

**_On our way, Tai!  
>TK and Kari are with me.<em>**

There was a long, long silence.

"So what's the Digital World, is that a new amusement park?" Yolei broke the quiet, smiling down a bit condescendingly at TK and Kari. It was actually a pretty good question. TK and Kari exchanged guarded looks while Davis stood off to the side, looking like he was trying to remember something. "I bet they have some great rides~!"

"I heard about it from Tai once. He said there were a lot of…_'Digimon_' there." There was that word again!

"What's a Digimon?" I asked, pulling out the same chair I'd used before and sitting in it backwards, arms folded on the back and head rested on my arms. I preferred sitting this way as opposed to the normal posture, to be honest. Davis shrugged at me.

"Not a clue."

"You know _Tai_?" TK asked, a bit incredulous. So what, was Tai some kind of movie star us normal people couldn't meet or something?

"They play on the same soccer team." Kari supplied helpfully. I assumed she meant Tai was like an assistant coach or whatever because as far as I knew, seventh graders and highschoolers didn't play on the same teams.

"Hey guys! I've got an idea! Let's all go to the Digital World!" Yolei chimed in, still smiling. I blinked at her a few times from my chair.

"You say it like we weren't already planning to go." I huffed, attracting the attention of the younger half of the group. TK looked a bit unsure and Kari looked like she wanted to protest, but Davis was nodding in agreement.

"Yolei, weren't you coming over? Remember, you were gonna fix my computer!" A really, really short kid practically materialized out of freaking _nowhere_ in the doorway which scared the ever-loving crap out of me. He had dark brownish hair in a bowl-cut and was wearing a dusky purple sweatshirt with khaki pants. He look maybe…what? Eight? Nine? And he was adorable. See, I liked kids. Just… not the ones I was related to. Was this that Cody kid Yolei was ranting about earlier?

"Ooh…Sorry, I forgot…" Yolei replied, looking a bit crestfallen. "Maybe next time then, guys. See you tomorrow, Rikku! Bye!" And with that, Yolei collected her things and trudged out of the room. The kid's face was set in a slight frown…or a pout. I couldn't really tell. He and Yolei turned the corner and were lost from sight. Well, there went the only person I actually _knew _in this room. Common sense said I should probably leave, but curiosity told common sense to go screw itself. I stayed put in my chair, inching forward a bit to fill the gap Yolei had left.

"We're going back to the Digital World! Prodigious!" Izzy proclaimed, looking very pleased with himself as he pushed back from the computer to smile at TK and Kari. They nodded in unison (_creepy_) and detached something from their waistbands. They…kinda looked like pale blue Tamagotchis. I scooted in closer to Kari for a better look.

"Well, I'm goin' with you!"Davis said defiantly, and I nodded in agreement.

"Count me in, too." TK, Kari, and Izzy stared at the two of us with matching expressions that could either be translated as concern or 'Oh, shit'. The hat-wearing blonde was the first to break the silence, stepping forward with a little frown. It looked weird on him.

"That's…impossible. Not just anybody can go y'now!" I raised an eyebrow, lifting my head off my arms. "You need a Digivice!" He held out his little blue Tamagotchi-digivice-thing for the world to see.

"Are you implying you're better than us?" I asked sharply, eyes narrowing behind my bangs. I wondering vaguely were the clip that had been pinning them back had gone, but I was a little more concerned with being offended than about my accessories. I was older than the two of them! The Oldest Child Laws specifically stated that if the Younger Children could do something, then the Oldest Child could, too. And who was the oldest here? Not counting Izzy, _me_.

"Yeah! If TC can go, then so can I!"Davis shot back, irritated. Izzy looked like he was able to snap, but was interrupted by the sudden flash of blue light from the computer. I looked over at it, only half-paying attention. This argument (if you could even call it that) was much more important than this school's weird screensavers.

Well, that's what I thought until a beam of silver light _flew out of the computer _and _into my face._

"HOLY SH-" Oh, ow. Ow, ow, ow. Whatever that thing had been, it was traveling at like a thousand miles per hour because when it crashed into my face it felt like I'd just gotten hit by a meteor. The impact threw me out of my chair and onto my back, face covered by something big and rubbery. "Okay. Um. _Ow._"

"What's this?" Dais yelped from somewhere above me. With much effort (ow, ow, _ow_) I sat up and pulled the rubber thing off my face. It wasn't actually totally made of rubber, just the grip things at the sides. The main body was a clean white color and made of what felt like metal, while the rubber grips and buttons were a solid shade of gray. I scrambled to my feet, holding it away from me like it was going to eat me. Hey, for all I knew, it _was_. It could be like…a Terminator in disguise or something. Nothing normal shoots out of computers and whacks short defenseless girls in their faces, you know.

"Seriously, what _is _this thing?" I echoed Davis, scrutinizing the Terminator from an arm's length away.

"A digivice?" TK's jaw dropped. Kari looked back and forth from her own Digivice to the ones Davis and I clutched. Well, him more so than me, I was just sorta letting it dangle. Stupid robot isn't gonna fool me!

"It's a different model than the ones we have…" Kari said. The tone of worry in her voice was doing nothing to calm my suspicions.

"So…it's not gonna try and kill me again or anything, right?" I asked nervously, still eyeing the Termina- sorry, the _Digivice _(I had a feeling I was going to be stuck in the habit of calling it Terminator) with trepidation.

"…It shouldn't." Kari replied, still a bit anxious-looking. Unlike TK and Kari (the former looking shocked enough to, I dunno, shit bricks or something), Izzy was taking the random appearance of unknown projectiles from a school computer quite well. In fact, he seemed fairly calm about it.

"We'd better go now while the gate to the Digital World is still open!" He turned to look back at the computer. Following his gaze, I noticed that there was some weird program thing with a red screen open on the browser. I…wasn't seeing any gate. Just an ominous screen that could totally spit out more Terminators- _Digivices_- at any moment.

"Well, yeah, but…how long is the gate going to stay open?" A totally valid question. If this gate-thing closed when we were still in the Digital World, wouldn't we get like…stuck? Kari didn't seem willing to consider the possibilities.

"I don't care! I'm going to help my brother." Oh, yeah. That's why we were all here, wasn't it? _Excuse_ me for getting a bit_ sidetracked. _Davis didn't seem too much better off. He was totally blocking us all out in his corner, poking at buttons randomly.

"Hey, can I get Donkey Madness on this thing?" Were his goggles cutting off the circulation to his brain or something? Davis flipped the thing over a few times, staring at it like it was the most complicated piece of equipment he'd ever seen. Izzy flared up, frowning disapprovingly.

"It's not a game! If the Digital World sends you a Digivice, then there's a reason and you should take it seriously."Davis didn't look very convinced. He stared blankly at his blue Digivice before returning to pressing random buttons. Izzy looked like he was caught between developing an ulcer and launching himself at Davis. It was fun to watch.

"I'm not waiting any longer!" Kari barked out, obviously beyond irritated. Her Digivice held out towards the screen, she took a stance a few feet away from the computer.

The computer responded by flashing a blue light the swallowed her whole.

…

_…What?_

Before I could scream or faint or call the police or anything, TK was already in her place.

"I'm with you!" Another flash of light. When it faded away, TK was gone.

"Okay, bloodthirsty projectiles just came to kill innocent students through a bloody red screen of death which then proceeded to eat two seventh graders whole. A I the only one just a _little bit _concerned here?" I nearly shrieked, fighting the intense urge to throw the white and silver device in my hand at a wall, window, or preferably the man-eating computer before me. Davis seemed to share my sentiment as he was openly gaping at the screen with wide eyes. Holy shit. Holy _shit._ What were we supposed to tell their _parents?_'Oh, sorry Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya, your daughter got sucked through a portal created by a psychopathic red screen of bloody murder! I hope you have a nice day!'

Yeah, no. I panicked. Flailing my arms, I turned to face Izzy, completely oblivious to the fact that I was now _pointing my digivice at the screen_.

"What the hell-"

A flash of blue light.

_Shit._

* * *

><p><strong>(1): It's a bit like Jeri's hair from Tamers, but longer.<strong>

**Okay, that was the -official- first chapter! It used to be longer, but after realizing how lengthy it was already, I chopped it.**

**Much thanks to DaiCrazy for the review and story alert and to KyroxIsxSmexy for the story alert!**

**Please review, thanks!**


	3. Enter Flamedramon

**DISCLAIMER: Rikku and Rikku's family are MINE. Everything else belongs to rich people who aren't me.**

**SUMMARY: Killer soccer balls, weird monsters, and a psychopathic underclassman with a God-complex. And here I thought moving was supposed to be fun. .:Adventure 02 Rewrite, OC/?:.**

**WORD COUNT: 8,533**

**WARNINGS: Swearing. No F-bombs, but lots and lots of swearing. Also, minors being chased by dinosaurs.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: Enter Flamedramon<strong>

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><p>When I was little, Mom and Daddy took me out to an amusement park. I was about seven at the time and the twins were only three (not that they were any nicer) so they couldn't ride some of the rides that I could. Being the bratty lil' tykes they were, Ryou and Ryuu pitched one giant fit about it for most of the trip. It…wasn't fun. At the very end of the day after having had grubby little hands try to throw hotdogs at me, tear my pigtails off my head, and steal all my prizes, I think Mom finally took pity on me and she left the twins with Daddy so we could go on a rollercoaster together.<p>

It was a little sad that I was seven years old and had never ridden even the little kiddy rollercoasters before. I was a little nervous because this rollercoaster was for the bigger kids, but all the cotton candy I'd had was starting to kick in and I was way more hyper than scared. I just _barely_ passed the height requirement and was allowed to get on the ride.

Background information: I am, was, and hopefully always will be a fairly skinny for my size and age. This held true even when I was seven years old and was probably why we had so many issues with that rollercoaster. I was so tiny that the safety belt was just loose enough for me to say…slip out to my death. Fortunately, the ride had one of those big over the shoulder bars too, so I was safe. Unfortunately, my seven-year-old brain only registered how much I was able to be thrown around inside the seat and I spent the entirety of the ride completely convinced I was going to fall out.

Going into the Digital World was a lot like that, only instead of having my Mom right there to hold my hand I had two possibly insane underclassmen and a third who was so deeply stupid that it made you wonder if he had been tossed out of a moving truck when he was a baby. Not the best company when you think you're about to die.

The terrifying feeling of falling to your death but not actually falling didn't last nearly as long as it felt like and in almost no time at all, the four of us were all standing upright in the middle of a forest, completely unharmed.

I quickly rectified that by tripping over gravity and onto my back, where I stayed and stared blankly at the sky for at least twenty seconds.

Oh my god.

…

Oh my _god._

Had I just died? I must have. The digivice had turned into a Terminator and _eaten _me and this was obviously some sort of afterlife. Had I made it to Heaven?

"So this is the Digital World, huh?" I groaned and buried my face in my hands. No, I was definitely alive. That specific voice was far too annoying to even belong in Hell. Besides, I had fallen on top of a pebble or a stick or something and it was digging into my back rather painfully. Death wasn't supposed to hurt. I struggled up to my feet, pouting at the three in front of me. They all had looked around with varying expressions on their faces. TK looked like Christmas had come early and was grinning from ear to ear. Kari looked like she wanted she wanted to smile too, but the pressing issue of finding her brother kept her from rejoicing too much. Davis on the other hand had his mouth wide open and seemed like he was about to have a seizure.

I could empathize.

"Geez, guys. Way to help a girl up." I huffed out, brushing the dirt off my bone white dress. I looked around with wide, cautious eyes, taking in every shift of the surreally green leaves on the almost _blue _trees with-

Wait.

…I was _not _wearing a dress when I went to school.

"Hey, Rikku, were you wearing that before?" Davis asked, also noticing my sudden change in apparel. I looked up at him to deny it, but stopped when I saw what _he _had on. Words wouldn't seem to come out of my mouth, so I just pointed at him silently. He looked down and jumped. "Whoa! Was _I _wearing this before?!" He turned in circles in an effort to see the entirety of his outfit, looking fairly pleased.

I took a moment to give myself a good look. My blue shirt had been replaced with a stark white mini dress with some sort of weird symbol on the front. It looked like someone had drawn a vertical line over an eight and then put two little dots on either side of it. I had a mini jacket on over the dress that was the same grey as my digivice and a pair of elbow length white gloves. There was a pair of grey tights under my dress (_oh thank god_) that were tucked into a pair of white boots. I had a small grey side pack strapped to my waist and I could vaguely feel the outline of the digivice against my hip.

Not even my hair had been spared. My curls had been tamed into a thick, vaguely wavy mass and were tied into a low ponytail. The clip I had mysteriously lost during the school day was back in my hair and holding my bangs aside, though a quick brush of my fingers over it made me realize that his one was different. My old one was just a plain blue clip, but this one was…thicker. Judging by the shape, it was probably a barrette. There was also some sort of swirly pattern engraved into it.

Overall, I was wearing a lot of white. Outdoors. _Me_.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that, what with my track record with keeping my balance, this outfit would inevitably end up brown by the end of the day.

"Would someone like to explain why I'm in different clothes?" I said dryly, looking at TK specifically. Kari looked a little…stressed out at the moment. TK shrugged at me, still wearing his yellow and green outfit. I mean seriously, even his hat was still there. Kari was still the same, as well. I was a bit creeped out.

I mean, technically I had just been stripped by the internet, right?

Davis had finally seen all of his new wardrobe that there was to see and looked at Kari expectantly.

"So, Kari. This forest is pretty big, huh? You wouldn't happen to need a big, strong guy like myself to-"

"It's over this way!" Ooh, burn. Kari had pulled out her tamagotchi-digivice and started walking, following what looked like a little red blip on its screen. Was it like a GPS or something? I tugged my own out of my side pack and flipped it over a few times while trailing behind her. There were two black buttons by the screen and one large D-pad at the bottom. I pressed one of the black buttons and the screen flickered to life, showing me the same image that Kari was getting. There was a small cluster of three red dots and one white one, which I assumed was supposed to represent me. Off near the top of the screen where we were headed was a lone blinking red light. But what was that there, a little to the side of the red light…?

"Hey, um, Kari? Are you picking up the same reading that I am?" I quickened my pace until we were next to each other and I held out my digivice for her to see. She glanced between mine and her own, a frown slowly coming over her face.

"That's odd. That light over there in the corner…" I nodded and looked at her digivice. The cluster of four dots was the same, and so was the lone blinking dot in the distance. However, mine was the only one that showed another little white light, just off to the right of the flashing light we were headed towards. TK came up to join us, sticking his digivice out for comparison as well.

"I'm not picking it up either."

"What do you guys think it is?" I asked. They traded confused glances with each other and TK rubbed the back of his head.

"I honestly don't know. We'll have to check it out after we find Tai." The mention of her brother seemed to refocus Kari and she nodded, overtaking us once again in an effort to move faster. I fell back to the rear of the group, alternating between looking at the dot and glancing around at the scenery. I wasn't exactly thrilled at being at the back of the group, but my latent big-sister instincts weren't about to let three kids a year younger than me walk around with their backs exposed. Maybe I'd read one too many adventure books, but that was usually never a good idea.

"You know, this place really isn't that scary. The way Tai described it, I thought there'd be monsters all over the place," Davis mused, looking around in awe. I hummed lowly, casting a glance over my shoulder.

"As far as we know, there are." Davis tugged at his gloves, a cheeky grin on his face.

"I guess you could be right, but- Hey! Check it out!" Completely in awe of Davis's utter lack of attention span, I turned to look at what he was gaping at. A little further ahead, TK and Kari paused to look back as well. There, sitting innocently in the middle of a large bush was a…vending machine?

"The fudge?" This was not normal. There was no _way_. Vending machines required power sources, right? …We were in the middle of a forest. _What_.

"…I am a little thirsty," Davis tilted his head to the side before approaching the vending machine cautiously. I frantically tugged him back by his fluffy white collar and had to resist the urge to slap him upside the head.

"Don't you think that's a little suspicious, Davis?! You know, a vending machine _in the middle of the forest?!_" As if to prove my point, the soft pink machine gave a slight groan and then began rumbling uncontrollably. I took a few steps back, dragging Davis along with me.

That was not normal. _None _of this was normal.

Suddenly, a neon green…_thing_ exploded out of the dispenser and was soon followed by teams of its brethren. I gave an ear-piercing shriek as they barreled into my ankles and knocked me over, Davis not far behind. The green slug-like things bum rushed out of the vending machine, parting around us like _we _were the weird ones and disappearing off into the trees. Davis yelled and tried to scoot out of the mass of slugs, only to realize that we were surrounded. I on the other hand jumped back to my feet and squealed like a little girl, trying my best to both avoid stepping on one and get out of the mess as quickly as possible. They were weird, green, stinky, and had _tongues_. Big, fat, lolling tongues that were dripping with drool.

_Ew._

Off to the side, TK and Kari were having a grand old time laughing their butts off at us. The rush of weirdness finally ended and I stood frozen, somewhat traumatized.

"_Ha ha_, very funny," Davis pouted and pushed himself back up to his feet, storming past me to rejoin the remainder of the giggling group. I stayed still for a moment longer, making sure that the green things were really gone before catching back up to the group. Ew. Ew, ew, ew.

"S-so what were those things? I guess they weren't dangerous since you guys just laughed the whole time," I deadpanned, much more alert to my surroundings now. The white blip on the map could _wait_ if things around here were as freaky as that.

"Numemon can be pretty nasty sometimes, but these were just scared. There's lots of other monsters around here too, and most of them are a lot cuter than those," Kari informed, her struggle to keep a straight face evident from her tone of voice. I picked up on this and was not amused. Fine then. The next time _she _got flashmobbed by something gross and drooly, I sure as hell wasn't going to help out.

"There are some a lot scarier, too!" TK added happily. I gave the back of his head a very strange look. 'Joy' was not the proper emotion to convey when talking about big, scary, dangerous monsters that could eat you in one bite. His constant cheerfulness was beginning to freak me out again.

"Do they all come out of vending machines?"

I facepalmed.

"Yes, Davis. Yes they do." Kari said solemnly before sighing and shaking her head, clearly somewhat annoyed. I could feel her pain. The sarcasm seemed to go right over Davis's head, however, and he grinned widely.

"Cool!"

"Davis, she wasn't being serious." And even if she _had, _it would _not _be cool. Was this some sort of guy thing? Obfuscating stupidity in the face of terror? Davis's shoulders deflated and he looked a bit put out.

"…Oh."

Ahead of us, TK paused for a moment, a strange look on his face. About half a second later, a tan flying...pig-bat thing burst out of the bushes and into his chest.

"TK!" The impact pushed him back a few steps and he looked a bit confused for a moment before his brain caught up with the situation. Instead of flipping out and running away like a sane person, he gave the brightest grin I'd ever seen (well, other than Mr. Meiseki's literally blinding one) and clutched the bat-thing to his chest in a monstrous bear hug. Next to me, Davis was doing the sane person thing and freaking way the fudge out, pointing and gaping.

I was about a second away from dropping all my crap and escaping the crazy people when a tall guy with goggles (was this some sort of trend I didn't know about?), Kari's face, and _seriously massive hair_ came bounding up. Behind him were what looked like a miniature yellow dinosaur and an oddly colored tabby cat with gloves. I edged a little closer to Davis, eying the cat's claws with some trepidation. Mom had a cat. Claws _hurt_.

"I- what- oh forget it." I gave up. I decided that this entire situation was just destined to be absolutely insane and I would save myself tons of grief by pretending to be crazy too. It seemed to work for TK and Kari just fine.

"TAI! I told those guys you'd be alright!" Davis exclaimed, no small amount of hero worship in his eyes. Tai glanced at him and then took a double take, eyes wide.

"Davis? What are _you _doing here? And who're you?" He looked at me, and then at the digivice still clutched in my hand. I waved, smiling with exaggerated cheer. I considered adding some unhinged laughter, but that seemed a bit much.

"Rikku Osai. I'm new and possibly having a heartattack." Tai looked at me like he was doubting my sanity (_hahaha_) and I waved him off. "Ignore me. I'm going through a temporary bout of insanity right now."

"…Right. Well, now that you guys are here, I've got something to show you. Follow me!"

* * *

><p>I leaned against the wall of the giant cave that Tai had led us into, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed. Usually if a strange man with large hair appeared out of the trees and told me to follow him into a cave, I would have pepper sprayed his ass and then maybe have run to go get my ass kicking younger brothers (not that I'll ever call them that to their evil little faces). This was a bit of a special case however, so I had bit my tongue and held back the ocean of sarcastic and probably rude comments I was desperate to make. Life-changing and highly dangerous and <em>general messed up <em>events tend to make me a wee bit pissy.

At the moment, Kari's cat Digimon thing- Gatomon, was it?- was telling us about how she had lost her 'tail ring', which apparently was a bit more significant than it sounded. According to her, a 'Unimon' (Tai had explained to Davis and I that Unimon were sort of like smartass unicorns with wings- only in a much nicer way, of course) that was being possessed had attack her and she had just barely escaped with her life, never mind her ring. She explained that it hadn't really been the Unimon's fault and that it was being controlled by something.

"One day this bossy human appeared and began making Digimon into his slaves. He said 'I am the Digimon Emperor!' I think we're all gonna have to punch a time-clock, too…" Gatomon's ears drooped and I fought the ear to 'Aw'. For a freaky talking cat with claws roughly the size of my fingers, she was surprisingly adorable. She also seemed to be the only thing with a fully functioning brain that I'd met since I'd ended up in the Digital World. I liked her.

"Another _human?_ Are you sure?" TK asked, frowning in worry. Gatomon just looked at him like he was an idiot. TK seemed to realize that yes, Gatomon knew what a human looked like and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, there goes the neighborhood…" he muttered.

"Yeah, and he's got this strange new dark digivice that makes us unable to digivolve!" Wait, digi-what? It sounded suspiciously like evolve.

…These things could get _weirder?!_

Tai elbowed me lightly in the side to get my attention.

"Show her yours," he ordered. I was slightly miffed at the command, but I realized that he probably knew best in this situation. I pulled away from the wall and knelt down to Gatomon's level, holding out my digivice to her cautiously. The giant claws were still a bit off-putting.

"Did it look anything like this one?" The cat Digimon took one look at my Terminator and leapt back, hissing up a storm. Her flipping out made me flip out and jump back into Davis's legs, who completed the chain by thinking he was under attack and stumbling backwards. The only thing that saved him from falling over was Tai, who caught him by the shoulder and steadied him.

"That's it! You work for the Digimon Emperor!" Gatomon's tail whipped from side to side. I had seen Mom's cat do the same thing when baby Ryuu had gotten it into his budding criminal mind that cats probably gave good piggyback rides. Cheshire had slapped him so hard that I could hear it from the other room. For a moment, I seriously thought that Gatomon was going to do the same thing to me and held my hands up in defense, panicking.

Ches had been declawed. Gatomon most definitely _had not. _Rikku-kabobs, anyone?

"W-wait! I'm not working for anybody! I just got here, dammit! Seriously, the computer lab just barfed this thing into my face- literally! It tried to kill me! I'm innocent, I swear- and look, mine's not even dark! It's freaking white!" I flailed, scrambling to my feet. Gatomon's ears pricked up and she stared at me hard. Mind whirling, I latched on to Davis's hand, which was clamped around his digivice, and shoved it in her direction.

"H-hey! What are you-?!"

"See, look! Davis has one too, and it's not dark either! Do you really think this Digimon Emperor guy would hire _him_?" Gatomon thought about this for a moment and then nodded, fur flattening again. Her tail stopped twitching in agitation and she licked at her paw, eyes wary and trained unblinkingly on my digivice. I sighed in relief and released Davis's arm, only to step behind him slightly and use him as a human shield against the still irate kitty. His hair was big enough to hide me almost totally from view.

"What's _that _supposed to mean?!" Davis huffed indignantly, pouting. I just gave a somewhat shaky laugh and reached up to ruffle his afro.

"Nothing, kiddo. Don't sweat it."

"_I'm not a kid!"_ I decided the conversation was over and turned away from him, which sent him into another tantrum. Messing with him was actually a lot of fun. My attention returned to Gatomon, who was looking more and more frustrated.

"That dark digivice is draining all of our power and making us weak as newborn kittens," Gatomon frowned, paws balled into fists at her side. This seemed to strike some sort of cord with Tai, who turned to look at his giant dinosaur friend. Oh god- listen to me. I was thinking _giant dinosaur friend_ like it was the most normal thing in the freaking world. I was going to need therapy after this.

"So _that's_ why you couldn't digivolve earlier!" Tai's tone was almost accusing and the dinosaur faltered, looking away with an angry pout. Well, I assumed it was a pout. Dinosaur faces weren't really made for that, you know- _What the hell was wrong with me_.

"Yeah, but if I could digivolve that guy would be _toast_!" He huffed defensively.

"The Digimon Emperor uses these powerful dark rings to control you," Gatomon began, shifting from foot to foot nervously. The flying bat-pig nodded, joining in from on top of TK's hat. To his credit, the blonde boy didn't look like he was terribly bothered by the extra five to ten pounds squatting on his head and straining his neck.

"Yeah, and once the ring captures you…" The bat-pig's voice lowered as if he was telling a scary story around a campfire. "You're his slave for _life_." I couldn't help the involuntary shiver that went up my spine.

"Sounds creepy," I mumbled, rubbing my arm slightly to erase the goosebumps. Kari took a much more aggressive approach and gritted her teeth, glowering at the wall.

"'_Digimon Emperor!'_" she huffed. "I'm gonna slap a dark ring on _him_, see how _he _likes it…"

"As fun as that would be to see, that's not why I brought you all here. Come on, it's over this way." Tai motioned for us to follow him deeper into the caves. We followed single file, Tai leading us and me rounding out the back. Left in relative silence, my mind started to wander.

Digimon Emperor, huh? He sounded like a prick. What kind of person does that? I mean, if I'd just randomly popped up in a weird world- and I _had_- I don't think the first thing on my mind would be conquering it- and it _wasn't_. All I'd wanted to do since getting here was get the frig out. Still though, this guy must have been pretty powerful. From what I'd seen so far, these Digimon things weren't exactly pushovers. And what did he tell people? I mean, _someone_ had to notice that he randomly disappeared for hours at a time, right? Did the Gate-things open from places other than the school computer? Could he maybe get in from his house? Or maybe he was some sort of psychopathic hobo who mooched off the library's free internet. So many questions… Either way, this guy was obviously bad-

My foot caught on a bump on the uneven path and I faceplanted. I waited for a moment, both to let my brain unscramble and to see if anyone was decent enough to help me back up. When nothing happened after a full five seconds, I sighed angrily through my smushed nose and hauled myself back to my feet.

"Gee, thanks for the concern guys. You've really warmed my…heart?" I looked around. No one. My breath caught in my throat. "…Guys? You didn't…you didn't _leave_, did you?!" A spark of annoyance lit up in my chest and I grabbed onto for all I was worth. Being pissed was infinitely better than the alternative, which was being absolutely terrified out of my mind.

Grumbling, I yanked my digivice out of my side pack and fiddled with the buttons until the GPS screen popped up again. Sure enough, a little cluster of dots was making its way farther and farther up my screen, while my lone white one was left behind. I frowned, looking closer. It looked like…they had taken a turn a ways back. I turned around and sure enough, the tunnel branched off to the left a few yards behind me.

Facepalming and feeling thoroughly ridiculous, I started to make my way back to the group, but something stopped me. There, a little to left on my screen… that second red blinking light that I'd seen in the forest. The one that only showed up on _my _screen. I hesitated, looking down that the long tunnel that would take me straight to it.

Common sense said that I should rejoin the group and see what Tai wanted us to see. I was in a strange world and there was safety in numbers. But…there was just something about that _dot_. I felt like it was pulling me in through the tunnels. There was a little voice in the back of my head urging me to go find out what the dot symbolized, and _now_ before it disappeared.

I glanced back at the turn and the cluster of dots on my screen before turning sharply and sprinting back down the tunnel towards the blinking red beacon.

I had never been the smart child, anyways.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, I was violently cursing my stupidity to the depths of hell. Whatever part of me that thought this was a good idea was a <em>moron<em>. After wandering around the tunnels for what seemed like hours, I had finally found the dot. In fact, according to the stupid map on my stupid digivice, I was standing right on top of the damn thing. I cursed violently under my breath, turning in a full circle to try and find anything that may have set my digivice off.

Nothing.

I sat down hard and rubbed my temples. I was seriously considering just chucking this stupid handheld thing as far as I could and running in the opposite direction. The Digimon Emperor had one, right? What if I was right and these things were legitimately Terminators? What if the Emperor's digivice was the _real _mastermind behind all of this? Had it taken a hold of some poor soul's mind and twisted him into doing its bidding?

What if _my_ digivice was a Terminator and had lured me down here so it could kill me where no one would ever find my body?!

I shrieked and lobbed my digivice at the nearest wall, jumping back on my feet and spinning back in the direction I had come. I caught myself before I could start running and ran a hand through my bangs, sighing. I was going off the deep end. My digivice was _not_, I repeat _not_ trying to kill me. The red blip was probably just a malfunction and-

It occurred to me that I had never heard anything hit the floor or wall.

I froze and took a shuddering breath in. '_Okay, Rikku, calm. Deep breaths. You probably just weren't paying attention. Your digivice is not trying to kill you, it did not grow legs, and it most definitely is not preparing to eat you. Breathe.'_

I took a cautious step in the direction I had thrown it. Without the light from its screen to light up my path, I could only see a couple of feet in front of me at best. One step turned to two and I found myself wandering through what I had previously thought was a particularly shady bit of wall, but was actually another tunnel. I used my feet to feel around on the floor for my digivice. There!

The Terminator had landed in a patch of soft grass, which explained why it hadn't made a sound. I picked it up, but paused to run my hands through the grass. Didn't grass need sun to live?

Now interested, I let the light of my digivice guide me while I walked deeper into the tunnel, which seemed to just go in a giant uphill corkscrew. After a while, it became bright enough that I didn't need to use my digivice anymore. I ran my hand along the wall- it was sort of plush and spongy like there was stuff growing there.

My journey ended when I broke through a curtain of plant life and entered the outdoors once again. I had to blink a few times to clear my vision, but when I could finally see I was blown away.

Everything was just so…_glowy_. Thousands upon thousands of pale flowers grew on every available surface. They seemed to almost shine in the light and…there were just so _many _of them. I wandered the perimeter, slack-jawed. This was the prettiest thing I'd seen since… well, ever. Something clicked in my head and I looked down to check my digivice. Sure enough, I was on top of the dot again. I must have been directly above where I was when I'd panicked and thrown my digivice.

"Okay…so what about this place made that dot…?" I muttered to myself, looking around. To my left, the flower field suddenly ended and I peered over the side. I immediately retracted my head and stumbled back into the relative safety of the clearing. I was on a freaking _cliff_. There was a two to three story drop to the ground. It would probably hurt if I fell off. Maybe. Just a _bit_.

In the middle of my stumbling, my foot caught on something again and I fell over it, landing hard on my butt with a yelp. I rubbed it sorely while I crawled forward to see what I'd fallen over.

I brushed away the layers of vines and flowers that covered it to reveal what looked like an egg. It was almost square and was bone white. Two lines of blue and pink crisscrossed across the front to make an X with the same weird figure eight that was on my shirt over the intersection. If it hadn't been for the four _bunny ears_ poking out of the top, I could've mistaken it for someone's giant easter egg.

I reached over to pick it up. It took a bit of tugging, but it finally popped free. I turned it around in my hands a few times.

"Okay… so what's so special about this?" Suddenly it flashed in my hands and turned into a beam of light. I shrieked and let it go, scooting backwards. It didn't seem to care about my obviously submissive behavior and charged at me, flying straight into my digivice, which ate it. I stared at the grey and white device in my hand, gaping. "…_What the hell, man._"

"NYUUUUUUU~!" Something squealed out. A jet of grey light shot out like a geyser from the spot where the egg-thing had previously laid. I screamed for the billionth time that day as a white blob of…_something _exploded out and headed straight for my face.

Why was it always my face?

The blob attached, still making that weird noise. I reached up and pried it off, dropping it like a hot potato and scooting back until my back hit the cliff wall. Another scream was starting to build in my throat.

"I'm out! You let me out! Oh, thank you Miss!" The white thing, which I could now tell looked more like a rabbit, danced back and forth on invisible legs (if it had any, they were hidden by the bottom of its dress…torso…thing) in front of my feet, smiling brightly. It was incredibly adorable, what with its large pink eyes and its cute little paws. There were four things sticking out of its head- two up, two down- that almost resembled big bubbly rabbit ears with blue stripes. There was some sort of…white and blue antenna thing sticking out of its forehead that was swaying from side to side as the thing danced. Just underneath it on its forehead was a yellow crescent moon tattoo shaped like a 'U'.

That same crescent was around its neck, on both paws, and on its stomach area. It had a small grey medal around its neck, suspended by two thick pieces of pink ribbon. Its tiny claws didn't look very sharp, but something told me they could pack a punch if push ever came to shove.

All in all, it was _cute_. That really didn't making the whole 'dance around the traumatized teenager' thing any better, though.

"U-um…excuse me?"

"Yes, Miss? What do you need? I'll get it for you, whatever it is!" Now that I was thinking a little more clearly, I could tell the high pitched voice was clearly female. Her politeness was a bit unnerving, but it was a nice change. You have to realize, most of my social interaction lately has come from the two devil-spawn who claimed to be my little brothers and a kid with an afro who tried to cave my head in with a soccerball. At this point, _everyone_ was looking polite.

"Um…what are you, exactly?" The rabbit thing paused in her dancing, looking surprised and then embarrassed.

"Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I? How rude of me. Please accept my apologies, Miss! My name is Lunamon! I enjoy dancing, afternoon naps, and making the Miss happy. How may I help you today?" Lunamon pressed her paws together and leaned towards me, looking happily expectant. I leaned back, blue eyes wide.

"Um." I said eloquently. "My name is Rikku. You, uh- you don't have to call me 'Miss'."

"But Miss Rikku is a lady and should be addressed as such! Besides, you set me free! You're the only one able to move the Digi-Egg of Dreams, so I'm forever in your debt!"

Lunamon's enthusiasm was…alright, frankly it was adorable and kind of fed my ego, but that wasn't the important thing. Now that I had successfully satisfied my curiosity and gained a bunny-butler, it was time to go find the others. They were probably wondering just where I'd-

The ground shook violently underneath my feet and something gave a massive roar.

Yelping, I huddled into a ball and pressed back into the stone wall even harder. Lunamon snapped to attention and stood so close in front of me that her giant ears nearly smacked me whenever she turned her head to search for the source of the noise.

I would have been grateful and maybe a little flattered had the flowery cliff not chosen that moment to not only _completely crumble_ but also _catch fire _and then _fall on top of a goddamn Triceratops_.

If I survived this, I was going to ask Dad to homeschool me because public school wasn't worth this shit.

"_Lop-ear Ripple!_" Lunamon cried, and suddenly I wasn't falling to my death anymore. I looked up sharply and promptly curled up into a ball again at what I saw. Millions upon millions of bubbles surrounded me in a whirlwind of white and blue. Somehow, these bubbles were defying gravity hard enough to lift me into the air (I was beginning to realize that the laws of physics didn't necessarily apply when you were pretty much inside the internet) and, judging by my lack of death-via-falling-rocks, were also flinging the debris a safe distance away.

My bubble vortex ride ended with a sharp and sudden collision into something fluffy and large. The whirlwind dissipated just in time for me to get an eyeful of Davis's brown afro before the momentum of the crash sent us both over the edge of _another _cliff. Thankfully, this one was closer to the ground and we managed to tumble down the steep drop without actually breaking anything.

Facedown in the dirt (a position I was becoming more and more familiar with) with Davis sprawled over my back and Lunamon resting on the back of my head, I groaned loudly and resisted the urge to cry. Low or not, falling off a cliff still _hurt_. And Davis was really, really heavy.

"You control the Digi-egg of Courage, Davis! You've got to _use _your courage an open it up!" An unfamiliar lisping voice urged from somewhere around my thigh. Davis shifted on top of me and from the way all of his weight was suddenly concentrated on the small of my back I guessed he was sitting up.

"_Get. Off._" I hissed, though it sounded much more like a displeased grunt seeing as how my face was still pressed into the dirt. Realizing this, both Davis and Lunamon rolled off my person.

"Oh my- Miss, are you alright?! I'm so sorry, Miss Rikku! I'm still not very good at aiming that attack, you see, so I accidentally crashed us into this boy- but that's no excuse! I'm sorry, so sorry! So, so, _so_-" Lunamon cut herself off with a wail and attached herself to my face, bawling apologetically. Caught somewhere between sympathy (there was a crying bunny rabbit on my face) and terror (_there was a crying bunny rabbit on my face_), I gingerly patted her back.

"R-rikku! Is that another digimon?" Davis asked. From around Lunamon's massive ears, I could see a bizarre looking egg (…there was a _spike _in it) similar to the one my digivice had eaten clutched in his right hand. Next to him, an unfamiliar blue dinosaur was peering at my new digimon, curiosity plastered all over his face plain as day. I tried to explain, but Lunamon's

"_There _you are! Come on, you two! You have to get up, it's not safe!" Tai's voice called, rapidly drawing closer. Biting back several scathing retorts, I pried Lunamon off my face and clambered to my feet, shifting her around in my arms so I was clutching her like a baby. It was really more for my sake than hers. The fear was starting to come back.

When the crazy people that were buddy-buddy with blue and yellow dinosaurs thought it was dangerous, then serious shit was probably about to go down.

"I can digivolve if you open the egg, but you have to have courage to do it!" The blue dinosaur with small yellow 'V's all over his body insisted, tugging on Davis's sleeve. Tai nodded seriously in agreement and opened his mouth to agree, but was cut off by a frantic looking TK nearly steamrolling him. His lack of smile only confirmed that we were all very, very likely to become dino chew-toys very, very soon.

"Guys, _come on!_ We have to get out of here!" The same loud roar that had preceded the cliff collapsing rang out, only this time it was quickly followed by the giant dinosaur I _thought _the cliff rubble had crushed. Taking Davis by the afro and me by the jacket, TK practically threw us at the ground as the giant black creature leapt over our heads. It landed with an earth-shaking thud and charged towards some unknown point.

It became much, much less unknown when Kari started screaming.

I caught a glimpse of her collapsed on the ground with her foot at an odd angle before the charging dinosaur completely blocked my view. My breath caught in my throat. Davis screamed.

"_KARI!_"

I wasn't going to make it. Kari was too far away, the dinosaur was too fast, I was still on the ground. It didn't stop me from wrestling myself out of TK's grip, dropping Lunamon, and bolting towards Kari as fast as I could. All I could think about was her screaming and Davis screaming and how close the digimon was getting and how in the hell was Tai going to tell his parents that his little sister was crushed by a frigging _dinosaur _and oh god what if it was one of the twins instead of Kari and holy shit holy shit holy _shit I was stupid_.

And then suddenly something big and blue and _on fire _plowed into the dinosaur's side and knocked it over. The resulting shockwave was enough to make me stumble and narrowly avoid faceplanting for the billionth time that day. I caught myself just in time and skirted around the tall blue armored figure that had just head-butted the glowy-eyed dinosaur with extreme prejudice. I slid the last few feet on my knees in my rush to get to Kari. I could feel my skinned knees prickling, but I fell so much that it was a normal sensation and I brushed it aside.

"Can you stand?" I asked, eyes straying towards her ankle and then back to her face. Her eyes were screwed up slightly in pain, but she nodded hesitantly. I slung her arm over my shoulder and with Gatomon's help, we eventually managed to stand and then hobble slowly back towards the group.

The dinosaur (Kari informed me with a tight voice that it was called a 'Monochromon') tried to charge us once, but the blue thing in armor showed up again, stopped it dead in its tracks, and then _flipped it over its shoulder_. Both Kari and I paused in our wobbling to openly gape. We stayed that way until Monochromon started breathing fire, at which point we remembered the original goal and continued limping back. Had I not been so short and weak, I would have put her on my back and ran like hell _because holy shit fire._

Tai met us halfway, eyes flitting back and forth between his sister and the curbstomp battle going on just behind us. He took one look at her limp ankle and turned around, scooping her up by the knees and bumping her up onto his back. He turned back to face me, brown eyes set in a serious look. I had a gut feeling of _wrongness _that said he was the sort of person who should be smiling, so I offered up a weak smile of my own, feeling a little awkward under his intense gaze. Also, terrified. Definitely terrified.

"_Thank you_."

I shrank a little. Tai wasn't blinking. At all. It was seriously starting to freak me out. Well, more so than I already was.

"Y-you're welcome?"

"No, I mean it. You-" I was saved the pain of hearing Tai make me feel even _more _embarrassed by two things.

First: A wailing Lunamon who couldn't seem to decide if she was frantically worried or incredibly pissed off ("_How could you do something so stupid._ You could have been _killed!_ Oh goodness Miss, are you alright?! You didn't hurt yourself, did you? _Are you insane?!_") launched herself at my head, climbed up my face, and made herself comfortable on my scalp where she alternated between pulling my hair and patting me down for head wounds. I let her with little fuss because I _had _just done something completely retarded that really should have ended with me as a little red splat on the wall. I didn't regret a thing, though. About saving Kari, I mean. I was _seriously _regretting coming to school earlier though.

Second: The blue armored guy ("Flamedramon", Tai whispered in awe) leapt about two stories into the air, _caught fire_, and starting hurtling headfirst towards the Monochromon. Gatomon cupped her paws around her mouth and yelled up at him as loud as she could.

"Aim for the Dark Ring!" My head snapped around to look at the dinosaur. Sure enough, there was a big black band wrapped so tightly around it's midsection that its soft underbelly was slightly red and irritated where the ring pinched it. Flamedramon adjusted his flight path so that the large spike protruding out of his head hit the black ring dead on. It shattered on impact and the Monochromon dropped like a rock. Flamedramon bounced away and landed in a graceful crouch, flames slowly dying out.

"…Is it over?" I asked hesitantly, taking a few cautious steps back until I was slightly behind Tai. My question was answered when the Monochromon blearily raised its head and with a blink of normal, not glowy eyes, groaned.

"Whazzat?" He slurred. Satisfied, Flamedramon glowed a soft orange color before a beam of light very similar to the one my digivice had eaten on the flowery cliff shot out of his chest and was absorbed by Davis's own digivice. Flamedramon rapidly shrank down until the glow dissipated and revealed a slightly winded looking Veemon.

It was about that time that I realized my knees were shaking dangerously. Laughing almost hysterically, I sank down slowly before my legs completely gave out on me and breathed in a few times through my nose. Noticing the movement, Lunamon went into full mother hen mode and started circling me, both reprimanding and apologizing at a rate that made me dizzy. Smiling awkwardly, I reached out to pluck her up (her circling was somewhat nauseating) and set her down on my lap.

"I'm fine, Lunamon. Chill." She didn't seem convinced, but settled down anyways and made herself comfortable. I took a deep breath in and looked around, taking inventory.

A small ring of trees had been completely leveled. The entrance to the cave system behind us had been almost totally destroyed. My dress was more dusty brown than it was white. In front of me, TK and Davis were slowly helping Kari off her brother's back and watching with baited breath as she tested her ankle gingerly. Scooping Lunamon back up, I rose slowly back to my feet and walked forward with steps that no longer shook, much to my relief. I was enough of a safety hazard with steady legs, thanks.

"You okay?" I took up a spot just behind the strangely goggle-less Davis. While I had managed to calm myself down a bit (or I had gone into shock- I couldn't tell), the fact remained that there were still giant freaky monsters all over the place. Davis had a friendly blue dinosaur that got bigger and caught fire. I was sticking close to him.

Kari stayed quiet for a long moment as she carefully hobbled around in a circle. Seemingly satisfied with her mobility, she turned a bright grin in my direction.

"Yeah! I think I must've just twisted it. Thanks for helping me out back there." I merely shrugged in acceptance, though my chest was glowing with warm fuzzies. Next to me, Davis puffed out his chest and gave a cheeky grin.

"_I _was pretty awesome too, y'know! We should go on a date to celebrate my victory!"

"In your dreams, Davis."

"Wasn't it _Veemon_ who won the fight? Maybe she should go with him instead."

"…Miss, what is this 'date' concept that you speak of?"

"Whoa, Rikku! Since when did you have a digimon?"

"…Davis, we've been over this."

* * *

><p>By the end of the hour, the no longer psycho-crazy-evil Monochromon had given his apologies and his farewells. While TK and Kari waved to his back and Tai and Davis had some sort of male bonding ritual, I leaned on a tree and just watched everyone else with a not-quite-frown on my face.<p>

I really couldn't just walk away from all this, could I?

Had you asked me an hour ago, I would have sworn up and down that all I wanted to do was go home and pretend like none of this had ever happened, but now that the danger was over I felt almost…content?

While we had managed to both cause serious damage to the surroundings and nearly get ourselves killed, we had also helped out someone (or _something_, anyways) that needed it. What would have happened if TK, Kari, Davis, and I hadn't come here today? Would the Monochromon have killed someone else? Were there other digimon with those gross black rings on? What were _they _doing while we were just standing here? Was-

My questioning was cut off by a sudden weight falling from above and landing on my head. I nearly fell, but managed to use the tree trunk to steady myself in time. Tiny paws came down to grip the sides of my face and my vision was partially obscured by four ridiculously large bunny ears.

"…Lunamon. Why are you on my head?"

"Your hair is very soft, Miss Rikku. I can also see the sky better from up here!" Sensing she had more to say, I tilted my head slightly and stared at what I could see at her face hard. She giggled in surrender. "Miss Rikku is also short enough that if I fall, it won't hurt." She added, a somewhat mischievous smile on her face and in her voice.

"Oh. A short joke. _Hilarious_." I sighed, no real venom in my tone. I was used to it. I was the size of your average sixth grader and hardly anyone ever passed up the opportunity to point this out. My deep thinking on hold for the moment, I moved to join the rest of the group at the top of the hill just outside the forest.

"Hey, look! The sun's going down!" TK's flying bat-pig thing (I would have to remember to get his name later) cheered, staring out at the sunset. "Now we can relax!"

I blinked. Weren't evil, creepy things actually _more _likely to attack people when it got dark out? TK seemed to follow my train of thought and looked at his bat-pig inquisitively.

"Why's that?"

"The Digimon Emperor never appears at night." Gatomon answered, tail whipping back and forth in a relaxed manner. I looked out at the sunset, only to be forced to move a few feet to the right to get a good view. Tai's hair was so big it actually _blocked out the sun._

"So even the 'Digimon Emperor' has a bedtime, huh?" I snorted. Then I paused.

Wait.

_Bedtime_.

…

Oh, shit.

"We should really head home now, too. It's getting kind of late." Tai noted. Without missing a beat, he whirled around to stare Davis hard in the face. "Never stay out too late!"

Caught off guard, Davis (who was now wearing Tai's goggles- when had _that _happened?) squeaked and nodded furiously. I had to giggle a little- Tai and Davis reminded me of a dad scolding his carbon-copy son. My laughter quickly died out when the glow of the sun reminded me of the problem at hand.

It was _sunset_. I was supposed to have been home _hours _ago. My dad was going to throw a fit. Hell, he'd probably even called the police. I was so beyond dead it wasn't even funny.

"You know where the gate is, right?" I demanded of Tai, who looked a little taken aback. He nodded. "_Great then let's go._"

"I- Hey! You're going the wrong way!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I HAVE NO EXCUSE.**

**To make up for the (ridiculously, unreasonably) long wait, this chapter was super extra long. I'm a terrible person, I know. Feel free to like, throw rocks and stuff at my head.**

**ALSO: I am aware that Monochromon is not actually modeled off of a triceratops. I'm fairly certain your average 8th grade girl doesn't know what a Monoclonius is, though, so whatevs.**

**SPECIAL THANKS TO: Magiccatprincess for the review, The-Gray-Ninja and Xagi for the favorite, and Xagi AGAIN for the story alert. **

**SUPER SPECIAL THANKS TO: Something Dictionary Related for pointing out my geography error. OH GOD HOW DID I MISS THAT I'M SORRY I FAIL GEOGRAPHY FOREVER. I went back through and changed everything so Rikku now comes from Nagoya, not Tokyo. Still a big city, but a reasonable distance away. **

**ALSO TO REDDIAMOND29 FOR REMINDING ME THAT THIS STORY EXISTS. /shot**


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